Spanish photographer wins the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 has been awarded to
Spanish Londoner Jordi Ruiz Cirera for a photograph of a camera-shy Bolivian
woman.

First Prize

Margarita Teichroeb, from the series Menonos, by Jordi Ruiz Cirera
Ruiz Cirera, a 28 year-old Spaniard living in London, took this photograph of a Mennonite woman in Bolivia, where he lived with different colonies and eventually won their trust. Photography is forbidden in many Mennonite communities – which partly explains the sitter’s evasiveness. Ruiz Cirera, who has also won the Deutsche Bank Award in photography this year, takes the 12,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012.

The London-based Spanish photographer Jordi Ruiz Cirera won the £12,000 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for his image of a 26-year-old Bolivian woman seated at a kitchen table.

The winning image is part of Ruiz Cirera’s long-term project to document the daily life of a religious community. Her shyness stems from the fact she is a Mennonite - a religion that forbids images, with some members believing photographs are a form of graven image. Having travelled to South America on two occasions, Ruiz Cirera gradually won the trust of the residents of several colonies located south of Santa Cruz.

The Mennonites’ uneasy relationship with the camera is reflected in the winning portrait of Margarita Teichroeb, pictured at the home. "She seems to be afraid of the photographer, unwilling to expose herself to our gaze. Her awkward expression says a lot about the tradition, isolation and lifestyle of this community," says Ruiz Cirera.

Ruiz Cirera was born in Spain in 1984 and trained in Barcelona before moving to the UK and studying Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication.

Jennifer Pattison took the £3,000 second prize for a nude portrait of her friend Lynne; Spencer Murphy won the £2,000 third prize for his magazine-commissioned portrait of the actor Mark Rylance; and Alma Haser came fourth, for a picture of a pair of friends, Luke and James.